The present invention relates to bicycles, and more particularly, to training wheels that are attachable to a bicycle frame.
For many years, training wheels have been available to help a child learn how to ride a bicycle. Typically they comprise a pair of L-shaped brackets. A small auxiliary wheel is rotatably attached to the outer end of the horizontal leg of each bracket. The vertical legs of the brackets have holes or slots that can fit over the axle of the rear wheel and are held to the frame by the axle nuts. The brackets are attached so that the small wheels are positioned outwardly from opposite sides of the bicycle frame. Both training wheels contact the ground to support the bicycle upright as the child pedals. The height of these conventional training wheels can be adjusted by moving the vertical brackets up or down, primarily to accommodate sixteen-inch versus twenty-inch size bicycles. However, this does not change the horizontal positioning of the training wheels relative to the rear bicycle wheel. In some cases, one of the training wheels will be off the ground at most a couple of inches when the other training wheel is in contact with the ground. Thus, when conventional training wheels are used, the child is supported nearly vertical at all times. As a consequence, there is a difficult transition when the training wheels are removed, and all at once the child must balance as he or she is riding, and learn to maintain this balance while banking significantly on sharp turns. This can make it difficult for some children to learn how to ride a bicycle. Injuries to the children are frequent, and damage to their bicycles often occurs. These difficulties are attributable to the sudden change in the handling characteristics of the bicycle. This is frightening to the child and usually requires the parent to run along side the bike to provide stability assistance. It would therefore be desirable to provide improved bicycle training wheels that could eliminate this difficult transition.